PARIS — The Oxford County Commission released a statement Thursday that they are reviewing the county Emergency Management Agency’s operations after the resignation of director Scott Parker.
The 90-day review will be completed “with an eye toward gaining cost efficiencies and increasing synchronization of county efforts with municipalities,” according to the statement.
County Administrator Scott Cole said the commission is looking into creating an EMA policy committee staffed with municipal emergency personnel like fire and police chiefs. The committee would set the direction of the EMA, he said.
The committee would bring “more of a participatory process in identifying what the EMA does.”
Cole said some agencies in the county had avoided training sessions and other EMA events. He said fire chiefs had complained that “what was offered was not really appropriate for their departments.”
In a June letter calling for the commission to terminate Parker’s position, Cole had called for a reorganization of the EMA with more focus on transparency.
In May, Parker was the subject of an investigation by the sheriff’s office on whether he broke privacy laws in the use of emergency phone number databases for an emergency notification system that would inform residents of natural disasters or other emergencies.
The District Attorney’s Office didn’t press charges, but Cole recommended commissioners fire Parker. In a letter to commissioners, Cole said Parker “demonstrated remarkably poor judgment.”
Parker handed in his resignation letter on Tuesday after more than a month on leave. His resignation is effective Aug. 2, when his vacation days and half his sick time have been used, as is county policy. The statement ended by praising Parker’s work.
“We want to thank Mr. Parker for his service to Oxford County,” the statement read. “In the past six years, he has raised the county’s level of emergency preparedness, and been instrumental in the creation of several programs that will prove beneficial to its citizenry in years to come.”
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